SyrLinus

Hi Amy! Welcome to VBB&F. I'm sure you'll find this place a great resource in finding recipes, friends and support in your journey.

Welcome to Vegan Bodybuilding! So what's St. Louis like? I've never been so I'm curious.

Welcome to the Forums, Richard. Or is it Richard?

Welcome to VeganBodyBuilding! Where in the Toronto area are you from? I used to live in Burlington and Cabbagetown and did a lot of bicycle touring rides from Toronto to Montreal and Toronto to Ottawa to Montreal. Anyways, again, welcome!

That map route I found on MapMyRide was ok but it didn't include the warning that the Queens Botanical Gardens don't allow cyclists . I had to find a detour (took Main Street to Roosevelt and then went over the Roosevelt Bridge to 114th and then onwards to 65th down to Queens Blvd). It was a mere 21miles/34km. Less than what I usually use to train but since it was getting more and more busier and since I was starting to experience hypothermia, I figured it was time to get home. I'm not a body builder per say but more of an endurance athlete. I'm in Jersey for the week starting tomorrow so I'll be limited to weight training for the week. That's ok. I may just use a stationary bike for a bit to keep the ol' heart rate up. It's going to be interesting. I may have to bring some food or venture out via cab for one night to a nearby mall and see what things I can bring back to the hotel. I hate when the hotel is in the middle of frick of nowhere.

I'd also be game. I'm a mod/admin at two other sites and am pretty close to 24/7 so if you need some spam mods I'm volunteering..

Well, I figured a faster (and probably safer) route to the gym today via bike. And got in a nice 40 minutes of weight training. I also did about an hour and a half of riding (all riding for now is on my single speed which is killer on hills!). Tomorrow, I'm going to do a 25 mile loop that I found on MapMyRide Hopefully it'll warm up earlier than later.

I've found that having good bike shorts (6+ panels) and a good seat (designed for long distance touring) along with lots of riding helps alleviate that. I can ride for up to about 3-4 hours before I have to stop. And in those instances, I stop for a 10 min stretch to give my legs a chance to recover a little bit and stretch my back muscles as well (it's not just about lower body).

Well, I got a nice 3 hours in today. For some reason the traffic is light on the streets today but that's good. I came back hungry (tummy grumbling) and realized I have no oatmeal. I'm gonna have to get some so I can make a quick filler with a snack of apples and/or bananas. Feels so good to be on the road again.

If all you did was cardio, then I suppose there'd be some muscle loss. The fact that you are doing weight training (free weights probably be the best and include your leg muscles as well in there), it should be fine. And add a little bit more (enough to keep everything fed and such).

I know. I feel like a kid again. I had my maps and map book out last night so I could try and figure out where to go this morning. Only to realize that I have to be somewhere early this morning so no ride this morning. I'll try for later today. If not, definitely tomorrow morning since I'm not teaching this week.

Welp, I got the bikes back this morning and then went out for my first ride in **9 MONTHS**. I did about 2 hours of mini-hills in Forest Park and biked along Queens Boulevard. I got no hassles from any cars so that was good and it'll only take about 10-15 min to bike each way to the gym so that's an added plus. Since the gym doesn't open until 8am, I'm going to bike around for an hour and a half or thereabouts before doing my weight training at the gym. Then I can do another hour or so afterwards. Obviously this will be on weeks that I'm not on the road (out of town) or teaching online. Although with the online course it'll be easier to go to the gym after I finish teaching for the day. I'm so excited and happy now.

Well, I'd expect some from members occasionally. I know that for some having someone like me in the midst, so to speak, can make others feel uncomfortable. But when the admins allow it or perpetuate it, even against their own TOS, then it's time to move on because they feed into it. To me, a forum has a death knell (slow or fast) when it ignores the disenfranchised of it's membership. If every attempt is made to offer an olive branch and resolve things, then the forum should be ok. But when they are ignored or made to feel unwelcomed, then the forum will have limited growth and will eventually die out. I do know that here, if I have issues, that -- at the least -- I will be listened to by the admins (even if there is a limit to what they can do). And I know the majority of the membership is either open or polite enough to not discriminated against me (even if my choice doesn't agree with them).

Any kind of discrimination is hard for me to understand. But it does happen unfortunately, intentional or otherwise.

I didn't realise this, when you say trans, do you mean transexual? Why would anyone discriminate against you because of that? That's crazy, in what way does it happen on other forums? Transgendered actually. Means I'm not taking surgical steps to "correct" gender issues at this time. I may end up transsexual at some point but not just yet. I've been talked down to, wrong gender or completely ignored (rather silencing and discourages one from posting). There have also been a few trans jokes said that were derogatory, and when reported were never addressed (obviously it was *only* me having the issue with them). *shrug*

I have to say I truly agree with this and have experienced something similar. I have found that being "out" as trans has, oddly enough, caused some vegans to treat me like I don't exist or to be rude to me. The first time it happened it surprised me since I thought that many vegans were open. I've only run into a couple of vegan forums where I'm accepted as I am and without judgement. This has been one of them and veganrepresent was the other. I've found the larger forums are were most of the discrimination and arrogance (for lack of a better description) seems to lie.

I agree with Potter. You may also want to have your bicycle bags loaded with books when you do it, particularly going uphill. The training I do for my long distance tours is usually to bike 5-6 days a week, with a minimum of 2 hours and longer on the weekends or days off (upwards of 3-5 hours, depending on schedule). It may also be worthwhile to do a weekend tour (say 50-75 miles each day if possible or whatever 80% of the daily mileage will be for the longer tour).

Well, the bikes are in the shop. The shop had a used fork that might be useable on my single speed for $45. Given the age and purpose of the bike (city riding during winter and summer months for training -- heavier is better for me -- and general usage). I also setup my small weights here and did about 30 minutes of upper body free weight exercises. Nothing fancy but something to keep things going. I'm hopeful that they might have the single speed ready by later today or tomorrow.

*GRRRRRR** I wanted to take my bikes in for a tune-up after their ordeal of being in storage and such for the last 6 months only to discover my single-speed's Rock Shox are broken! And I mean clean through! Granted they were over 10 years old and I was going to replace them because the parts are no longer available I thought I could go the summer without doing that. Now I'm forced to do it. Why can't people be more respectful of other's stuff?? I am grateful that the other bike, my custom made Gunnar, wasn't damaged but still.

Got my workout in on Saturday and felt really good afterwards. I hit B&N to get some map books and cycling books about the NYC and NY state areas. Yesterday the movers came and I'm happy that nothing was broken except for a speedometer on my single speed (easily replaced) and a single Coca Cola glass (I can get a new one if I really want one). I spent a good 8 hours unpacking, organizing and such. So that was yesterday's workout. I'll drop the bikes off tomorrow for a full overhaul as they've been sitting in storage for a while. I have to do some work this week but I'm hoping to be on one of the bikes by this weekend.

Did a nice 45 min free weights and weight machine workout. It was great and I really felt my tris and bis being stretched. I also did a 30 minute session on the bike and was able to maintain my heart rate pretty good to 145.

Well, yesterday, I did make it to the gym. I got in 30 minutes of cardio (stationary recline bike) and a good 45 minutes of free weights and weight machines. It feels so good to be back in the gym and back into a regular rhythm of things. I am finally seeing success. As I note in my main blog, I was at 208lbs as of Jan 1, 2008. I actually got up to 210-212lb sometime in January. Today, I'm at 202lbs so it's starting to come off. I'm working at keeping soft drinks and other processed foods out of my diet as I think that's my biggest factor and downfall. We're still coping with life without Mittens. There are times when this is hard. Other times, it's rather poignantly obvious that life continues without the gentlest of kittehs. I do want to thank all those that opened their hearts to us. I still have to figure out how to help Bobcat deal with this. She grew up with Mittens for her entire life (13 years) and she's starting to show some signs of being affected by it. A friend suggested getting some Star of Bethlehem to help but I haven't been able to find any in the nearby organic store. In the meantime, I've been spending a lot of time with Bobcat to help her adjust some more. Tonight I was going to make a vegan cheesecake but couldn't find the necessary tofu for it. I may try it tomorrow or have an alternative version, blueberry flavoured firm silken tofu and some fresh blueberrys and just make it as a blueberry cheesecake. So instead I'm going to make a warm spinach salad (with walnuts and red peppers) and a bok choy with green beans and almonds stir fry.

YAY! I'm so happy I was able to get back into the gym today. I also had to pay my dues (I was a bit late due to travel, illness and yesterday -- t'is all good now). I did get in a solid 45 min workout along with a 30 min cardio session. It feels sooo good to be back in the gym. And I'm rather excited that the move date was moved up to March 16th, so I'll get my bikes earlier! Another w00t reason! Anyways, even with all that happened yesterday today is good..

Well, we said goodbye yesterday. See below: Today, I'm going to go to the gym. The best thing to fight off any depression is exercise. And I do need to get back into form since my bicycles are coming in a few weeks.

Happy Birthday, Robert.